FALL RIVER — The free summer concerts series that launched last year as a way to bring neighbors together during the pandemic is returning, with plans to involve twice as many local parks as last summer.
“Last year, coming out of COVID, we wanted to bring people out into the neighborhoods and it was wildly successful,” Patrick Norton, executive director at the Narrows Center for the Arts, said at a press conference at Griffin Park on Wednesday to officially announce the 2022 “Summer Evenings in the Park” event series.
The Narrows is one of the program’s sponsors, along with the city of Fall River, Bristol County Savings Bank, Viva Fall River and Greater Fall River Re-Creation.
Norton described the concerts as “holistic” events that, along with live music, will include free arts and crafts for kids, free hot dogs and hamburgers and a free bag of groceries for each family that attends. He anticipates about 500 people at each concert, he said.
Musical acts will include the New Orleans-inspired Southcoast Brass Band, the Marcus Monteiro Trio, and the Dirty Water Brass Band.
Last summer, there were eight concerts across four different parks. This year, it’s expanded to include eight parks across the city that will each see one concert sometime during July or August.
“This is a partnership to make Fall River a better place to live,” Mayor Paul Coogan said at Wednesday’s press conference. “These things (last summer) were exciting, they were vibrant and they had a lot of activity.”
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Patrick Murray, president and CEO of Bristol County Saving Bank, which is contributing $10,000 to the program, pitched the concerts as bright spot during a time of increased isolation due to the pandemic and added stress from rising prices.
“It’s exciting to know that free, high-quality entertainment will be kicking off literally right here in just a matter of weeks,” he said.
Read more about the free summer concerts here: https://www.heraldnews.com/story/news/2022/06/23/free-outdoor-concerts-returning-fall-river-parks/7699026001/